Instruments Only

• Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony

• The TEN Tenors

• The Texas Tenors: Wish you were here

 

Operas

• 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – 1976 – Leonard Bernstein – ABOUT

• A Chorus Line

• A Quiet Place – 1983 – Leonard Bernstein – ABOUT

• Abduction from the Seraglio

• Anything Goes – ABOUT

• Aquarius

• The Arc Between – Winter Dance – ABOUT

• Arizona Lady

• Ariadne on Naxos

• Barber of Seville – ABOUT

• Big River

• The Bodyguard, The Musical

• The Boob Show

• The Book of Mormon

• Boris Gudonov

• Buddy Guy

• Candide – 1956 – Voltaire / Leonard Bernstein – ABOUT

• Carmen

• Carousel

• Celtic Nights – Oceans of Hope

• Chapter Two – Neil Simon

• Charlie Parker’s Yardbird – Daniel Schnyder – ABOUT

• Chicago the Musical

• Cinderella

• Company

• Cosi tan Tutte

• Cruzar la Cara de la Luna

• Das Rheingold – ABOUT

• Death of a Salesman

• Dialogues of the Carmelites

• Diary of Anne Frank

• Disney’s Aladdin

• Dolores Claiborne

• Don Giovanni

• Don Pasquale

• Doves Flight

• Dybbuk – 1974 – Leonard Bernstein – ABOUT

• Elixir of Love

• Esther

• The Exterminating Angel

• Fidelio

• Follies

• The Foreigner

• Gideon’s Knot

• Gobsmacked!

• Gospel of Mary Magdeline

• Green Day’s American Idiot

• Hair

• Hairspray

• Hand to God

• Hansel and Gretel

• Henry VI – Part One

• Hercules vs the Vampire

• How to Succeed in Business

• In the Heights

• It’s Only a Play

• Jake Heggie

• Joseph and Technicolor Dreamcoat

• The Journey to Reims

• The King and I

• The Kiss – Smetana

• Kurky Boots

• La Cenerentola – Rosinni

• L’assedio di Colais

• L’elisir d’Amore

• L’italiana in Algeri

• La Faniculla del West

• La Fille du Regiment

• Flight

• La Forza del Destino

• La Perichole

• La Traviata – Giuseppe Verdi – ABOUT

• Les Miserables

• The Liar

• Love is Here to Stay – Gershwin

• Macbeth

• The Magic Flute

• Major Barbara – ABOUT

• Maria de Buenos Aires – Astor Piazzolla – ABOUT

• Marriage of Figaro – Mozart – ABOUT

• Maddi’s Fridge

• Man of La Mancha

• Matilda

• Men are From Mars – Women are from Venus

• The Merchant of Venice

• The Merry Widow

• The Merry Wives of Windsor

• The Micado – Gilbert and Sillivan

• Million Dollar Quartet

• MoTown the Musical

• Mulan

• Notre Dam de Paris

• The Nutcracker

• The Odd Couple – Neil Simon

• Oklahoma!

• On the Town – 1944 – Leonard Bernstein – ABOUT

• On the Waterfront

• One Drop of Love

• Opera 101 – The Audition

• Othello

• Out of Darkness

• Outside Mullingar

• Owen Wingrave

• Parson’s Dance

• Pearl’s in the House

• The Phantom of the Opera

• Plated and Staged

• Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band

• The Producers

• The Queen

• The Rakes Progress

• Riders of the Purple Sage

• The River Bride

• Rothschild’s Violin

• Rusalka

• The Secret Garden

• Seong – Jin Cho

• Shen Yun

• Siege of Calais

• Silent Night – Kevin Puts – ABOUT

• Song from the Uproar – Mazzoli

• Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra – 1977

• Spring Awakening

• Street Scene

• Streetcar Named Desire

• Sunday in the Park

• Sweeney Todd

• Tancredi

• The Tempest

• The Tipping Point – Spring Dance – ABOUT

• Thomas Andes

• Tosca

• Trouble in Tahiti – Bernstein

• Xerxes

• West Side Story – 1957 – Leonard Bernstein – ABOUT

• Wicked

• Witches of Venice

• Wonderful Town – 1952 – Leonard Bernstein – ABOUT

• Yamato

• You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown – ABOUT

• Zurich Chamber Orchestra

Click on an Episode Number to watch the program.

---

Greatest American Hero

Season 1 – Episode -1-, -2-, -3-, -4-, -5-, -6-, -7-, -8-, -9-

Season 2 – Episode -1-, -2-, -3-, -4-, -5-, -6-, -7-, -8-, -9-, -10 -, -11-, -12-, -13-, -14-, -15-, -16-, -17-, -18-, -19-, -20-, -21-, -22-

Season 3 – Episode -1-, -2-, -3-, -4-, -5-, -6-, -7-, -8-, -9-, -10 –, -11-, -12-, –13-

 – Ralph Hinkley – Where is he now?
 – William Katt – Interview

 – GAH – Outtakes

 

Jane the Virgin

Chapter 48 – Chapter 49 – Chapter 50 – Chapter 51 – Chapter 52 – Chapter 53 – Chapter 54 – Chapter 55 – Chapter 56 – Chapter 57 – Chapter 58 – Chapter 59 – Chapter 60 – Chapter 61 – Chapter 62 – Chapter 63 – Chapter 64 – The End

 

Well, we did it.  Bought a house… AGAIN.

Our experiment was to move from a 2500 square foot house to a 1500 sq foot townhouse.  Turns out that is not enough space, but 2500 is too much – – – so we bought a house that is 2000 sq feet.  We move about April 1.

Our plan is to go with a digital antennae, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and something new – – – KODI.

It is a type of TV browser that offers movies through plug-ins:  Specifically  Exodus, Phoenix, iChannel, UK Turkåe, Spectofork, IceFilms, Genesis, Popcorn Time, Zeus, PrimeWire, SuperRepo and NiviX.

I will report on how well those work for us.

Technology still has not improved too much though.

A joke from David Bowie:

Two psychics approach each other on the street.  One says “I know you are OK.  How am I?”

 

A lot has happened over the past year.  Some of it good, and some of it bad.

On the bad… no good… no, just OK, but evil…  We’ve gone back to COX.  Unfortunately out of necessity.  We are now living in an HOA townhouse that precludes us putting up an external digital antennae.  For some reason, Dish Network is OK, but they don’t like the antennae – go figure.

Because of our other viewing options, we need COX digital cable, so the BASIC COX package raised our monthly bill by only $7.  I think we can afford that.  This gives us channels 2 through 22, which brings us all of the local channels.  Not such a bad thing.  That is piped into a TiVo Series 3 box. With the new shift to the MINI-BOX it now requires a card, which COX provides for free.  You WOULD NOT need this card if you had a digital antennae.  Read on for more about that.

TiVo Series 1 boxes are COMPLETELY incompatible with digital signals, so if you have a Series 1 box you will need a DVD player with an RCA output as a COX digital buffer in order to record anything on your TiVo Series 1 box.  With the new MINI-BOX configuration, I don’t even think this would work anymore.

TiVo Series 2 is a bit more forgiving, but still is incompatible with the COX MINI-BOX.  These will work only with an external antennae – and then again, using a DVD player with an RCA output as a converter.

My recommendation: Keep your eyes open at Goodwill for a TiVo Series 3 box.  It will run you about $30.

If you can afford it, a better option is the TiVo Romio.  This not only allows you to record your COX programming (with the card inserted) but allows you to stream anything it records to your iPad or other bluetooth device.

ALL OF THE ABOVE IS BECAUSE OF OUR LEASE, which ends November 2017.  After that here is the plan, which is based on about 4 years of trying to minimize how much we have to pay COX.

First of all, you have to understand download speeds.  That is what it is all about.  Click on the chart to the right, and notice something very surprising.  The top download speed in the WORLD belongs to South Korea.  Surprisingly the United States is a distant twelfth place.  This is from a few years ago, but is still probably somewhat true today.  Four Mbps (megabytes per second) is fine for most viewing.  As the connection/download speed decreases you get that staggering and reloading that makes viewing videos so obnoxious.  Speeds have done nothing but increase in recent years.

COX offers several packages:

• Internet Starter – 5 Mbps – $35 / month – Marginal performance, may have SOME delay issues
• Internet Essential – 15 Mbps – $56 / month – Good for most people, very little delay issues
• Internet Preferred – 50 Mbps – $72 / month – When I had my Internet business, I had this.  I had to sign a three year agreement, which I have to honor for six more months.  After that, I will be dropping to Essential.
• Internet Premier – 150 Mbps – $83 / month – If you are a big time gamer, or have a million dollar budget on your business, you may need this.  Otherwise, probably WAY overkill.
• Internet Ultimate – 300 Mbps – $99 / month – Again – if you have the money just laying around, this would be a GREAT package, but otherwise save your money.

If you are trying to get away from COX, what are your options?

• Verizon DSL – 1 Mbps – $20 / month – Stay away from this plan
• Verizon DSL – 3, 7, and 15 Mbps – $30 / month – If 3, 7 and 15 Mbps are the same cost, why in the world would you go with the 3 Mbps plan ?!?  I kind of doubt the download speed, except I guess it is possible.  I’ve been away from DSL for a long time.  The downside is this also requires you have your telephone through them.
• Dial-up – 56K – that is .056 Mbps – Not good for much of anything except eMail.  Barely adequate for that.
• AT&T – 6 Mbps – $45 / month – Early termination fees – Stay away from this plan
• Century Link – 40 Mbsp – Up to $60 / month – Five year price lock – Early termination fees – Stay away from this plan
• Earthlink – 7 Mbps – Up to $50 / month – 12 month contract – Early termination fees – Stay away from this plan
• NetZero – 6 Mbps – $30 – ( One of my customers when I worked for Actuate Software Corp ) – Early termination fees – Sorry, but I’ve gotta say stay away from this plan too

The OFF THE GRID option – A digital antennae.  We own two inside antennas, and while they are OK, they are not great.  If you don’t have a choice, and MUST use an internal antennae, CLICK HERE and this one will serve you well.  You have can put up an outside antennae, DO IT and  you will not be sorry.  We had about 65 channels with our external antennae.  AS A PLUS your signal will actually be clearer than the COX signal, because you are getting it directly from the source.  COX is getting it just like you are, and then routing it through all of their offices and cables.  HERE IS MY RECOMMENDATION for an external digital antennae.

THESE ARE THE CHANNELS that I get currently with my indoor antennae… the one in the paragraph above.

The bottom line:

• First choice:  Get an external digital antennae
• Second choice:  Go with COX Internet Essential.  They are fast enough, stable, and fairly inexpensive.
• Third choice:  Verizon 15 Mbps would be my second choice, but is still a good option if you want to dump COX and don’t mind having a Verizon phone.

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, here is what we will ultimately have (come November 2017.)

• External digital antennae fed into my TiVo Series 3.  Will probably replace with Romio when I get the extra money.
• COX Internet Essential, but NO local programming
• Digital telephone – no land line – remember to register your mobile phone with 911 registry
• NetFlix – $8 / month extra, but lots of streaming options.  Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.
• Amazon Prime – Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.  Include with Prime membership – some decent viewing options
• Hulu – Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.  Basic is free, but doesn’t give you very much.  To watch through my TiVo requires a membership which is about $8 per month.  I won’t be getting this.
• Vudu – Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.  I just discovered this, and it seems to be good, but it is too unknown at this point.
• YouTube – Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.
• Laptop (or computer) plugged into the VGA port of my television – Watch anything you can watch on your computer.  Doesn’t record.
• USB port on the back of our TV – Digital files viewed on our TV

We will be getting about 55% of our TV from the antennae, 20% from Netflix, 15% from Amazon, 10% from our USB port.  The other services we watch occasionally, but not very often.

I hope this has been helpful.

This is a very strange movie – made up of a lot of little interrelated snippets.

CLICK HERE to watch some of them.

Living Room Television

3 KTVK 5 KPHO CBS 6 KASW CW 7 Cox 7 – N/A – Use 1007 8 KAET PBS 9 KUTP My45 10 KSAZ FOX 11 GO Aco PHX AZ 12 KPNX NBC 13 KAZT 15 KNXV ABC 17 HSN 18 KPPX ION TV 19 KTVW Univision 20 KTAZ Telemundo 21 KPAZ 22 CRN PHX	77 KEJRLD Mundo Max 78 JTV Jewelry 79 EV ME 80 KAET 2 Life 83 KPNX NBC Weather 84 KUTP 85 KPHO Cozi 86 AZNC Arizona 88 KAET 3 World 91 KTAZ 92 KFP GetTV 93 KAZT MeTV 95 KNXV ABC 96 KUTP 98 – QVC – N/A – Use 1098 99 EDU TV 115 COX Community
123 ACTV Government 124 C-SPAN 125 C-SPAN 2 126 C-SPAN 3 – 1003 KTVK HD 1005 KPHO HD 1006 KASW HD CW 1007 COX 7	1008 KAET HD 1009 KUTP HD 1010 KSAZ HD 1012 KPNX HD 1013 KAZT HD 1015 KNXV HD 1018 KPPX HD 1019 KTVW HD 1098 QVC

Bedroom Television

8.1 KAET PBS 8.2 KAET Life 8.3 KAET World 8.4 KBAQ Music

10.1 KSAZ Fox 10.3 Heroes & Icons 12.1 KPNX NBC 12.2 Weather 12.3 Justice

Phoenix Digital Antennae Guide

3.1 Independent § 3.2 Independent § 3.3 Independent § 5.1 CBS Affiliate § 5.2 COZI TV § 8.1 PBS Affiliate § 8.2 PBS Affiliate § 8.3 PBS Affiliate § 8.4 PBS Affiliate § 10.1 FOX Affiliate § 10.2 MyNetwork TV § 10.3 Heros & Icons § 12.1 NBC Affiliate • 12.2 Independent • 12.3 KPNX Justice Network • 15.1 ABC Affiliate • 15.2 Antennae TV • 15.3 LAFF •

21.1 Trinity NetWest § 21.2 Church Channel § 21.3 Juce § 21.4 Trinity Affiliate § 21.5 Child Smile § 33.1 Span – Cox • 33.2 Span – Unimas • 33.3 GRIT • 33.4 Bounce TV • 39.1 Span – Telemundo • 39.2 Span – TelEx • 39.3 COZI TV § 45.1 MyNetwork TV § 45.2 Movies! § 45.3 Buzzr § 51.1 ION Affiliate § 51.2 Qubo § 51.3 ION Life § 51.4 Independent §

Legend – Signal Strength • – Usually Breaks up § – Usually GoodSources – Press INPUT button on LG TV – – Use LG Remote to change channels, and TV Guide App to find programming HDMI1 – – Says Blue Ray – Use Samsung 1. Eject button for tray extension 2. Middle control buttons are used 3. Subtitles button part of middle HDMI2 – – Says Satellite – Actually is TiVo 1. Press Guide for programming 2. Press TiVo for recorded shows HDMI3 – – Says PC – Goes to Acer laptop 1. Use the laptop to navigate 2. Sound will come up on the TV

Netflix HDMI2 – MyShows – All – Bottom See PW Vault for accessAmazon HDMI2 – MyShows – All – Bottom See PW Vault for access Hulu HDMI2 – MyShows – All – Bottom See PW Vault for access YouTube – – – – – No Login needed Unknown how to work these: HSN – WWE – AOL On – Toon Goggles – Yahoo DVR-F160 Box – Bedroom – – Needs to be configured every time – both directions

So, recently COX has announced the plan to go “ALL DIGITAL.” What this means is that you HAVE to have a COX converter in order to use COX service.

What does this mean to you?

If you have a regular expensive all-COX system, it means very little.  They are even giving you the box for free for the next two years.  You need a COX Mini Box and ANOTHER remote control, but they you will be up and running.

If you are like me, and have a cobbled system, it could mean problems.

In my case, we have a TiVo Series 2 and Series 3 box.

The Series 2 is simply too old, and we will have to simply use a digital antennae to get programming for that box.

The tech was a bit worried about the Series 3 box, but it came through relatively unscathed.  We needed some kind of Cable Card inserted into the TiVo box.  It went through about 5 hours of updates, and then APPEARED to not work.  The tech scheduled a follow-up visit to use some equipment he did not have.

A few hours after he had left though, all the electronic handshaking had completed and we had COMPLETE programming.  Unfortunately, it eventually resolved itself to the channels available through the standard Basic Cable package, but that’s OK.  That is what we wanted in the first place.

Some of the blogs say that TiVo Series 3 is not compatible.  That is bull crap.  It IS COMPATIBLE.

Good luck though.  It was a challenge getting it all worked out, but it is now working just fine.

CLICK HERE FOR THE CHANNEL GUIDE

My wife of 27 years and I started our relationship at a Regional Gathering of American Mensa … well, 27 years ago!  As a matter of fact, Thanksgiving is when we celebrate our anniversary.  We’ve been away for awhile, so were excited to attend the RG this year to see friends and deliver a presentation entitled “Cutting the Cable.”.  I will hopefully record it for you, and it will be here later, but regardless, here are the handouts from the presentation.

Handouts Page – Slides

Apple TV

Summary

T-Mobile – Unlimited

We turned on our TV one night, and the sound came on but the screen was black. Three days later, on the bedroom TV the same thing happened.

Coincidence? In this case: YES. I am not sure what our main TV’s problem is. The repair man will come next Monday. On the Westinghouse television, it appears that it is a very common standard problem. A bad capacitor in the power supply.

We decided to simply buy another television, so we got an LG 32 inch television, and we will sell the Westinghouse on eBay. Meanwhile, we have been using our computer to watch Netflix.

TV :: 2014 Q2 :: Consolidators

Here are some of the things that we have enjoyed watching with this alternate viewing schedule:

From Time to Time . A very well-done British film with much subtle imagery. As an unexpected surprise, two of the characters from the Harry Potter movies have major parts.

Grounded for Life: sitcom: a mildly amusing family sitcom about weak parents and a dominant daughter and unique son. Worth the watch.

Battlestar Galactica: series: starring Lorne Greene as Commander Adama, this classic follows a ragtag group of colonists on their trip through space in search for the planet earth

Sirens: sitcom: a fairly recent comedy following three EMTs (actually six EMTs) through their day today adventures. One very wannabe macho, one very gay, one probably in denial, one old guy, one borderline autistic counter, and one voodo princess. Very fun.

Saturday Night Live: I still can’t graduate from the glory days of John Belushi and Dan Ackelroid. Don’t bother.

Pocahontas: the movie: okay, so we finally watched it. Mildly entertaining. Worth a watch, but I still don’t like the ending AT ALL.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: series: I expected bad, but was mildly surprised. Worth watching just to know what they are doing.

Miss Fisher’s murder mysteries: British sitcom: still too early to tell, but seems like it might be okay.

Patton: The movie: this one is one also that I have known about for a long time, but have never watched. Patton was a son of a bitch as expected. The plot holds together pretty well, and it is well acted.

Brain Games: can’t say enough about this one. Watch it.

Psych: I knew it was stupid and very entertaining. We are watching it again. We have not been disappointed.

Derek: made for Netflix series: if you watch only one thing on this entire list, watch Derek. Ricky Gervais does a stunning job in about eight episodes.